The same two bears who explained Quantitative Easing so that even the ADHD afflicted could understand Bernanke's indirect subsidies to the PDs, once again simply finance and in 6 minutes explain the core issues behind the bank bailouts. Concepts explained include the Too Bigger To Fail banks (the JP Morgan Chase Bear Stearns Washington Mutual and the Bank of America Countrywide Merrill Lynches), Goldman Sachs' HoldCo position over the US government, the "very real evil empire's" Goldman Sachs profiting on the AIG, the reason why the failed CIT's boss is the same person who bought a $70,000 desk, and why "when you constantly get the bailouts you don't care about the shame." Also explained are NY Fed boss, The Timothy Jeethner, The Change brought from The President Obama, why The Ben Bernank will not lend you money, and The Screwing Of The American People.

Do you work for a bank? No. Did you get any of the bailouts? No. Do you pay taxes? Yes. Then the joke is on you.

Yes, indeed, the joke is on the American people. Consider fiscal year 2008 for Goldman Sachs:

In 2008, like all the Wallagio banks, Goldman Sachs was on a rapid path towards insolvency. No matter how much Goldman denies it, they were. Otherwise, they would not have made an over-night decision to become a bank holding company (giving it access to the government's mammary glands), along with accepting loan shark terms for capital from Warren Buffet - all in the same weekend. All the dominos were falling, and Goldman had its rightful place in line.

I'm not quite sure how many dozen different bailouts, back-door bailouts, subsidies and government programs Goldman Sachs benefited from in 08/09/10, but the list would be an impressive one - from the AIG bailout to ZIRP, and everything in between, Goldman had their lips firmly clamped around Bernanke's areolae. Make no mistake about it, the American taxpayer kept Goldman alive.

While the stock market crashed in 2008, driving the pensions and retirement accounts of millions of American's into the ditch, Goldman saw "record commissions" from equities in 2008, which were even higher than the bubble-top commissions of 2007. Similarly, their asset management division saw "record management fees". Securities services achieved record net revenues, 27% above the prior record set in 2007. In short, all the volatility and panic of 2008 that turned America into an economic wasteland was very profitable for Goldman, and I haven't even bothered to mention the "Big Short" conspiracies which deserve merit.

(All of these quotes and numbers can be found on page 1 of the link provided below.)

With this as a backdrop, Goldman not only stayed solvent, they posted net earnings of over $2 billion.

How much taxes did they pay?

1% (page 5)

So while you calculate your taxes in the next few months, and you think about how hard you're working and how you're barely surviving, keep in mind that Goldman only paid a 1% tax rate in 2008. If you're paying more than 1% in taxes, you're paying more than Goldman did in 2008 with $2B in profits. To add further insult, Goldman just announced that they would be hiring in 2011 - most of it overseas. All of this, from a company that only exists because of the American taxpayer.

I promise I won’t lecture too much on the need for gold-only or gold-heavy investors to switch to silver, but I would like to make one new observation on this matter. One of good arguments against switching to silver from gold is the general consensus that silver is more speculative and volatile than gold, which means while it outperforms gold in a rising market, silver also falls much faster when prices decline. I admit there is strong historical evidence of this. However, the actual current supply/demand circumstances in each strongly suggest that the past pattern may have now decisively tilted in silver’s favor for both up and down markets. New evidence suggests silver’s past underperformance in down markets is more than mitigated by its potential over-performance to the upside.

How is earning a living a "gain or profit" aka "income"? Its all fucking bullshit that we are getting screwed by this system year after year while the bastards that the 16th amendment was created for continually get away with piles of wealth and all we get is more regulation and more "security" and less freedom.

I had to redo the sample sound tracks on my original version because of Time Warner copyright infringement of the thousands of labels they own, and it was banned in the USA that kept you from seeing it the first time I posted it. I found a couple of my other favorite tracks on British labels that I used. I must say, they did me a favor because I had a second chance to tweak it and make it better.

Video Description;

Homey D. Clown comes out of hiding to support the Revolution. He don't like that Police State Shit, nor da man, thus Revolution. Yours is a peaceful revolution to keep your freedoms and liberty. But when push comes to shove, sacrifices will be made, and they know it. They also know, they can't get all of us.I made this Youtube in honor of the world wide Revolution.Please spread it around if you like it. Please rate it and leave a comment.

Well said. Obama is the ultimate usurper. He is the insidious enemy of the people and the U.S. Constitution. He and his kind in Washington D.C. are a bigger threat to liberty than any international terrorist ever was...... or ever will be.

As long as Wall Street and the multinational corporations own Washington DC, there WILL BE NO CHANGE.

Until Americans are ready and willing to take to the streets en masse, and show the politicos we want REAL CHANGE, nothing will change. And the USA will continue on the runaway train track accellerating towards the cliff.

Well the mantra at the time was that the purpose of TARP was to "get credit flowing again to consumers and small businesses". Was complete bullshit of course, as the only purpose of TARP was to save their Wall St. cronies who were about to be flushed down the toilet.

Had lending to consumers and small businesses been the real goal, the govt could have taken the $700 billion and chartered a new bank for just that purpose. That would have been $7 trillion in lending power directly to those who needed it. But the banker bonuses are more important when the bankers own the govt.

Who gives a fuck. Nothing is going to happen until it's too late for anyone to do anything with any civility. By the time the American people start to give a fuck in any kind of cohesive group with enough balls to act, the bullets will be flying because people will be too hungry to give a fuck about banks. Fuck this shit. Let me know when the war starts so I can pick a side and fuck up some bankers' shit.

I challenge the person who junked me to prove me wrong. I fucking dare you to drop your balls into your sack and reply with why you think the American people will somehow, spontaneously rise up to take care of this problem. They are more likely to spontaneously combust than they are to rise up... prove me wrong.. I WANT to be wrong..you have no idea how bad I WANT to be wrong.. but I'm not.

First of all, you know you're on the right track when you get junked because there is a serial junker on the site. Second, I agree completely. Nothing will happen until people are hungry and then they will hurt each other. Bankers always survive to pass down their blood money to their spoiled children. It's the way of the world. I console myself with being my own bank - no credit, pay cash for everything. I encourage as many people who are willing to listen to do the same thing. That's the only effective strategy - starve the beast because violence will never bring it down.

yeah, pushed a few buttons I suppose. I agree with your path. I am working on getting completely out of debt. I have been paying cash for everything since this shit started. Almost free and clear of the first round of debt. Cash if I can afford it. If I can't.. I don't buy it.. it's that's simple. Anything left over goes to REAL money if you catch my drift.

Lovin' every minute of this freedom from debt. I doubt there will be any large retraces, but that's my personal opinion. Quite honestly, in the case of silver, will it matter much if you buy at 29 and it shoots through the freaking roof? I BTFD when I can. I bought at the bottom of this last double bottom and it went promptly up 27.958. I didn't read CD's post about junk silver.. I'll go search for it now. My guess is he said buy junk because regular people can't tell the difference between that and .999 so they'll give you a price for junk silver in a take it or leave it kind of way.. now I'll go see if I hit the mark ;)

and to the other people who junked me.. you're fucking pipe-dreaming too. If we ever do rise up and start pushing these mothers out of windows, I will be the first to say that you were right. Until then.. keep dreaming.

No worries UGrev. Your right though. Most folks here are truly unaware. Amazing how people FEEL the burn, but are clueless about why they are burning. It's going to take a nasty jolt to get people back into the mode of actually "thinking" instead of just using thier head as an entry point for fast food.

United States patriot and historian G. Edward Griffin wrote a book over 20 years ago called The Creature from Jekyll Island -- A Second Look at the Federal Reserve. I hope the book will have to go into infinite editions to keep up with demand so that all of the United States might also find their patriotic spirit again, and demand a fair, and US Constitutional way to manage our currency...remember--the word currency means integrity as well as the literal thing we call money, but without integrity, no country's money means anything, especially if it is fiat money.

Andrew Jackson was demonized in history books to take back our country away from the private central bankers who had taken control. When 1913 came along, this group fenagled a way of flying under the public's notice by calling their private organization (bank cartel) The Federal Reserve. The Chapter Two of Griffin's book is titled, "The Name of the Game is Bailout".

We all suffer from cognitive dissonance and it is hard to believe that our beloved country, could be run by bankers, but it is...and the ramifications of this are too heavy to fathom, but let me at least say--our heartland is being gutted. The largest banks borrow for 0.0-0.25 but all the rest of the banks get charged 4-5% so voila, no lending---their is no such thing as an "exit strategy" for the Fed because money hasn't gone into the system, it has only gone into it's largest arms, the toobigtofail institutions, so that they can get paid 0.25% on any excess reserves, plus 6% on 1% of required reserved, and wtih these reserves, they buy treasuries, get paid the coupon, then use this money as collateral to buy derivatives, and send capital markets in any direction they wish...who pays the interest?--tax money.

OH yes, and these sacred, toobigandimportant tofail entities are buying up tax notes across the country through their veiled hedgefund affiliates, so that the every day citizen with a $300 tax problem, now has a $300 tax due, plus a bill for $10,000 in legal fees from a Bank affiliate....and these are the entities that our elected officials insisted we needed to save? They all need to get elected OUT OF OFFICE and we need new officials that are not bought by corporate interest (the bank cartel owns more than half of the DOW so there is no way to finger point which institutions are the one supporting the candidate--ultimately, this group supports candidates from every direction like a stealth bomber, under most of our radar.)

PS I am not a fan of Huffington but, this piece is a truthtelling nightmare exposee that i am grateful they shared with all of us:

Everyone should talk to their local small bank owners--even though they are "Federal Reserve Banks" they do not get the 0-0.25 Fed funds rate--only the toobigtofailandgettingbigger get to borrow for NOTHING, gamble all their depositors money (because they had their henchmen lobby to revoke Glass-Stegall Act) and run around the counrty, buying up stuggling property owners proberty with tax liens and local banks that can't make it because they have to borrow at 4-5%!

THe whole state story is another incredible mess--sure we don't want any more "bailouts" but the system is messed up--these toobigtofail banks borrow for nothing, but states are all getting thier short term lines of credit reset to such high rates that the interest alone will run the states into insolvency--with one tiny word (act) from Congress, this "reset" could be stopped and so much pressure would be off the state problems--but, it is better for the toobigtofail for states to struggle so that people will start dumping their munibonds and the cartel can scoop up the remains for nothing....

WE INDEED HAVE A SAD, CORRUPT MESS--my prayer is that there are enough good citizens out their that want to run for office and actually work for the betterment of our country instead of the enrichment of the individuals who own the bank cartel known as the toobigtofail entities.

I don't get it. In my town, there's three Federal Credit Unions, and at least, a half dozen small community banks and FSBs, yet there's two BAC branches and they are always busy. These are the two banks I use:

The problem now is that the Americans are satiated, ignorant, corralled and without community.

In contrast, Massive congradulations to the Tunesian, Egyptian and Algerian people who valued their liberty and freedom from oppression so highly that they took to the streets to claim their rights. However this turns out, massive congradulations.

America - Taking is a form of oppression.

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For those of you outside of America who might wonder what's going on in America, --> Someone in SoCal sells a nice Teutonic sports car to a young friend of some family by making the young friend a loan for the full amount. The young friend quickly stops making payments as he can't get a job. The car is reposessed. The young friend is last seen driving away in a new [USA] car via dealer financing.

Reveals what?

Sheeples are being placated in unsustainable ways, that are dependant on dollar hedgymoney. America is a very rich place.

The TARP was designed for the distinct purpose of creating a profit for the taxpayer and to be a media darling, however if you include maiden lane I and II and all of the tax breaks also the toxic paper the Fed has on its books, especially the entity created for Citibank, plus include the sweetheart deals the FDIC has given out. You are in the RED big time.

Yes paying cash for anything but your groceries does flag you. Except maybe for services. Finding more and more service providers (my hair stylist, moving companies, etc.) proposition me by offering a discount if I pay cash.

They are the original poster children of divide and conquer. Recall how their revolts of the sixties drove white flight from the cities--effectively killing their economies and isolating them into urban poverty camps. If they had been starving, and without SNAP they would have been, there would have been major trouble. Drugs help live with the nightmare. They have been quite useful in filling the prisons, benefitting that mega-industry and firmly institutionalizing the public perception that Blacks are the problem rather than a symptom of larger problems in the system (structural unemployment, unequal educational resources, class prejudice and the like.) The Black race has been indispensible to TPTB in promoting the empty illusion of justice and rule of law in America.

These original sheeple cannot be written off any more legitimately than the growing downwardly mobile middle class. Just as many of us are now aware and crying out about injustice, the Black community has always had a vociferous 5% (beyond Al and Jessee) who were aware and politically active--Hell, the entire Black community itself has been painfully aware of their position in the social structure. But it brings little in the way of necessary fundamental reforms when the message is inherently illegitimate to the minds of the out-group (ignorant sycophants of TPTB) and the in-group is kept fed, isolated, disorganized and mocked.

It will be interesting to see if the nouveau poor will be similarly marginalized and disenfranchized.

These xtranormal bears are too funny. Kudos to whomever makes these, they need to start their own web page and post em all the time. The dead pan breakdown of what is actually going on is excellent to say the least.

Federal Reserve lowers interst rates to 1% or less to stimulate false demand in a slowing econmy.

Banks pass the cheap credit and savings to the people. Free money almost.

People over spend on demand that isn't there. Like real estate, stocks, commodities and whatever else they can pile the cheap money into to make money on the cheap money.

Too much debt is taken on by everyone.

The economy crashes as it can no longer support the levels of cheap debt.

The Central Bank tries in vain to put out the very fire it ignited in the first place.

Conclusion: Central banks are not good for an economy.

Just look at what is happening in Canada (where I am from) now. Interest rates have been at 1% for well over two years now. M3 went beserk and now we are more indebted per capita than the US consumer. It happens every time. In Japan, in Argentina, in Europe, and now in Canada. We need to call them central bubble blowers and ponzi peddlers who use money to create no value other than a giant game of musical chairs except when the music stops it is the people who lose their chairs.

Big fat cancer/diabetes/viagra chuggin/coke drinken americans don't need a revolution, they are fat dumb and happy, just like the 2 party system wants them to be. The system works for people who work in one of the 2 parties or have a government job, which is most of america...defense contractors are after all, gov't jobs.

It was Paulsen that got Goldman its $12 billion back from AIG. Then they turned around and gave that to their vermin in bonuses in less than a month, like a pack of weasels thinking it would be rescinded. Goldman fucked up on the counterparty risk and still got paid 100% on the dollar. Paulsen knelt down in front of Pelosi to beg her to get the support to bail AIG. He had so little respect for this country and its people that he did not even consider perhaps making, oh, say, 80 cents on the dollar. No, it was a pure fuck. And then what a paultry penalty imposed when they should have been criminally indicted and taken down for the structured product scam.

The Bush bailout and then the Obama bailouts should never have occurred. The severe plunge would have cleaned out the rathole. What do we have ? Squid worse than ever (exporting great PR for the US brand as we speak), GM still has not sold an electric car, B of A and Citi are walking zombies, somehow no one is questioning the fact (except it seems on this website) that the budget is severely in the red forever which is in itself insane, we still are professing an increasingly bizarre Kabuki dance of a foreign policy doctrine that is a miserable $1 trillion a year failure, another dingbat President with zero balls and blah blah (it goes on forever).... But tonight, fuck you again Paulsen. For the good of your country, you should have denied the bailouts, effectively calling in a Broken Arrow...

Even here on ZH is he rarely singled out. This guy was one of the primary looters, then gets into a government position where he fixes the remaining bets of his cronies and declaires immunity for himself and them.

All this is done under the guise of helping to save the economy. He is then seen by the masses as some sort of savior.

The guy is guilty of TREASON. Let's start using that word more. TPTB that lie, cheat, steal and destroy our country are guilty of TREASON.

People that today still have a job and contribute to pension and insurance funds, are having their contributions handed to the banks that, in turn, are handing this money straight out in bonuses.... because bonuses are paid out of total turnover... and never in the history of the world have such large bonuses been paid...

Politicians are not the problem, they are after all elected by the people. The illiterate masses toiling away on their status reports and drinking fake coffee and eating fake McFood all day...that's the problem

A fat, dumb, lazy population of consumers will get exactly the government it elects. Why is this such a mystery to the people?

The population may be all those things but if you think elections matter, you are more ignorant than they are. Do you really believe that the men and women you see on tv or that run for office are running this world?

The people could elect Mother Theresa, Gandhi, and Jesus Christ and the UNELECTED men and women behind the curtain would still maintain ALL the power.

And one segment in particular if you will take a very close look at the names of those who need to be dispatched should give you some clue as to who is really calling all the shots.

The problem is the parasites foisted a system called "democratic government" on the people. The system is a monopoly power structure for a elite to operate (parasite power), not a system for distributiing power (people power).

It was achieved like the other ponzi system central banking and debt-based money on the people by deciept, cheating and violence by societies parasites.

The only systems that work are a free society and free markets. They distribute power to each to make their own decisions. When you hoard power in any central system of Govt or authority structure you monopolise power. The American Govt and Europeans run on precisely the same system as the failed USSR. The Executive, committees, making decisions.

It's the same system with the same result: parasites feeding off society until they impoverish it. Precisely what Washongton and Wall Street are up to now.

There's no checks and balances to these parasites when you monopolise power and enforce it with the State of increasing threats to your person (see non-compliance with the tax code). When we replace this this system, when the feeding parasites have driven it into the ground, we replace it with nothing (no Govt ponzi structure). Or it will be a (another) wasted lesson.

Th­e rich corporatio­­­­­ns and the too big to fail bunch of banksters can get away with murder, fraud, coercian, harrasseme­­nt of the general public and any other illegal activity under the sun because they have a lot of influence on the political class, the rule makers and the rule enforcers due to their enormous purchasing power. So irrespecti­­­­­­­­­­v­e of the position in the government­­­­­­­­­­, everyone works for their benefit.

The politician­­­­­­s around the world are nothing more than auction items which can be sold to the highest bidder. They will do whatever they can for the lobbyist paying them the maximum amount of money or votes, be it the unions, the banksters, the richest corporatio­­­­­­ns or individual­­­­­­s. They are in the power seat to extract maximum advantage for themselves in the small time frame they occupy the seat of power.

The rest of the population is least of their concerns. The only activity they do is pacify the majority of the population using false statistics and promises of a better future so that they do not lynch them and their masters while they are robbing the taxpayers.

What will it take to have Egypt-style demonstrations in the streets here in the USA? About the only real public outrage I've seen (aside from comments on internet sites like ZH and Market Ticker), was a handful of people tossing pebbles at a few AIG-exec houses in Connecticut and Westchester NY.

This is the greatest theft in the history of the world. Our country has been handed over to the financial elite. Why are there no organized massive protests in the street?

to state the obvious lying is BS. It's not for real though the bullshitter is. The truth is all we've got to gauge it. So you can't deal with BS, you have to address the bullshitter

And we're swimming in BS. The problem is every fraudulent institution in this fuked up inside out world is drowning society in lies. Everything from the word "democracy" to the word "law and order" and "public representatives" is a BS fantasy and a fraud in effect. The truth is we have fascism, anarchy, theft all perpetrated by societies cheaters, the parasites.

That's the truth. And that's how you measure the BS. That's what we have to run a sword through, the source of BS, the Govt and corporate parasites

Hmm, 70K desk. Thain has been gone for two years now and the bears are still talking about this as though it's yesterday's news?

Some folks just want to villanize the banks instead of getting to the root, Barney Franks and what he did to force home (entitlement) ownership on America. Now we're all paying for this major FUBAR brought to you by a gay, left handed, fat Jew!

This is like the movie idiotracy. The way the US education system is going the only way for the average American to understand anything is in Saturday morning cartoon format. Just imagine a generation from now what it is going to take.